


Don't You Want To Survive?

by allthings



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Gen Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:23:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthings/pseuds/allthings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Entry for The Ninth Doctor Ficathon in 2005. I was writing for cedara who wanted: <i>timetravel, aliens, tardis</i> and <i>didn't want deathfic.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't You Want To Survive?

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my transfer of old works to AO3 - written in 2005.

“Where are we?” Rose asked curiously.

The Doctor grinned, ‘Open the door and find out!’

Looking at him rather suspiciously, Rose crossed over to the door and slowly pushed it open. Then, she stepped out.

The Doctor waited inside the Tardis for a moment, contemplating this latest move. The last ‘adventure’ had not gone well, to put it lightly, and it was obvious that Rose needed some cheering up. And to be honest, so did he. It hadn’t been an easy situation to be put in. He’d known how to stop the whole thing in an instant but somehow, he just hadn’t been able to do it. Hadn’t been able to force Rose’s father to kill himself, hadn’t been able to force that pain onto Rose. It was over now, on Earth it was like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, except for maybe a couple of ‘unexplained sightings’. But Rose was having to grieve for her father all over again; she had lost a loved one twice. And although Rose was a strong girl, incredibly strong, a little speeding along of recovery wouldn’t go amiss.

Which was why he had brought her here.

‘Oy, Doctor, what are you playing at?” Rose had stuck her face around the Tardis’ door and was now glaring at him in a way that suggested he had made a slight error in his calculations.

“What do you mean ‘what am I playing at’? I bring you here and you ask me what I’m playing at?’ The Doctor bounded to the door, wondering if he’s misjudged what Rose would like.

‘I’ve only brought you to possibly the most beautiful planet…’ he trailed off as he stepped outside the Tardis.

The Tardis stood in the middle of what appeared to be a desert. A hot dry wind scraped at the fine sand, creating a dusty haze above the ground. The barren landscape stretched on as far as the eye could see, the only notable features being an outcrop of rocks the same washed-out yellow colour as the sand.

‘You think that this is the most beautiful planet?’ Rose was looking at him with raised eyebrows.

The Doctor stared out at the desolate expanse, brow creased in confusion. “This isn’t how it’s meant to be. This planet was lush and beautiful, there were forests, rivers, the most amazing flowers you’ve ever seen…’ he trailed off, still gazing around.

Rose turned her eyes from him and out to the desert then grinned, “Knowing you, you’ve just made, oh, a little mistake. Or was it the Tardis' fault again?” She stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

The Doctor pretended to be hurt. “I never make mistakes, I always end up exactly where I want to be!" But his offended expression soon dissolved into a wide grin. "C’mon, we're going over there." He pointed towards the outcrop of rocks, which looked to be miles away.

"You think you can make the Tardis land right there, and keep it in the right time, and keep it on the right planet?" Rose looked at him dubiously.

"Nope," the Doctor grinned wider, "We're walking!"

And with that he grabbed her hand, and set off into the shimmering yellow expanse.

***

 

The journey to the rocks didn’t actually take very long; the heat haze was deceptive. After a bit of clambering about, Rose discovered that one of the rocks was actually the overhanging of a large cave. Of course, the Doctor had noticed this as soon as they arrived, but he let Rose find it herself.

“Doctor, over ‘ere, look what I’ve found!” He smiled to himself, hearing her sounding so proud of herself, then vaulted over a rock to land next to her.

Folding his arms he surveyed the gloomy cave mouth. “So, what now?”

“What’re we waiting for, let’s go,” and with that Rose was ducking under the overhang.

She was learning fast.

The sun was shining in the right direction to illuminate the front of the cave, but the back was far enough away to be cast into shadow. Rose slowed down, looking back over her shoulder at him. “What d’you think’s back there?”

“Let’s find out!” He grabbed her hand and strode into the gloom, pulling her with him.

The cave went further back than expected. After a few metres of tentative shuffling he felt Rose stumble, and tightened his grip on her hand, pulling her back up. “You ok?”

“Yeah I’m fine,” she replied.

“I’m not,” a voice echoed from the darkness, sounding first near at hand, then far away. It scratched along the walls and floor, dry and rasping, the voice of a thousand lung cancer sufferers.

He felt Rose start, and pulled her to his side. “Who’s there?” he spoke out commandingly.

“Oh, no need to be afraid, Doctor.” The creature gave a sharp laugh that quickly degenerated into a series of harsh coughs. “I am one of the Florisians, that race you used to love above all others, before you found those…humans.”

“You don’t sound like a Florisians.” The Doctor peered into the darkness in the direction he thought the voice was coming from, trying to make out at least the shape of it.

“Oh, do not sound so suspicious, Doctor.” He had just landed on a planet that, last time he had seen it, was covered in green trees, shimmering lakes, mountains glittering with crystals, and flowers of every colour imaginable. He was supposedly talking to a creature that, last time he had met them, had been sinewy and lizard-like with shining scales and bright, darting eyes, and sweet melodic voices. He rather thought he had a right to be suspicious.

The voice came again, grating upon his ears, “If you want an explanation for our race’s current…predicament…there is a tunnel directly ahead of you. Follow it down; our leader lives in a cave below the ground. I am her guard, although I cannot do much to protect her in this state.” There was a wheezing sound which the Doctor took to be a bitter laugh.

Just exactly what ‘this state’ was, the Doctor wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. He was curious, and confused; he wanted to know what had happened to this place, and it’s inhabitants. He knew it could well be a trap, but he was confident in his ability to get out of it. If he had been alone, he would have been down that tunnel in an instant, to find out what was really going on here. But he was not alone; he had Rose to think of.

She had been very quiet since she bumped into the creature, but now she spoke up. “It’s ok, Doctor, you go on ahead and I’ll wait at the cave entrance. Unless you want me to come with you?”

“No, it’s fine. I think it’d be best if I went alone. Are you sure you’ll be ok waiting for me?” He let a touch of concern enter his voice.

“I’ll be fine,” she reassured him, and he could envision the indignant look on her face. She gave his hand a squeeze before dropping it, and walking towards the cave mouth.

With a last look back at Rose silhouetted against the sunlight, the Doctor stepped into the tunnel, and was soon swallowed up by the darkness.

The passage was cool, a welcome relief from the burning air above, but as he journeyed deeper, the air grew warm once more. But it was a different kind of warmth to the dry planet air; this was musty and close, and there was a faint smell behind it, like rotting fruit. Suddenly he stumbled as the floor evened out. It was pitch black, but he sensed that he was in a huge space, an underground cavern of some sort. The rotten smell was stronger here, bordering on overpowering.

“Hello, Doctor.” The voice emanated from the darkness, rasping and barely decipherable, worse than that of the creature in the higher cave.

“How do you know who I am?” the Doctor asked, instantly on guard.

“News travels fast Doctor, and in ways even you do not know about.”

The Doctor felt uncomfortable; he always did when other people knew something he didn’t.

“What’s happened here, to make your beautiful land into this desert?”

There was a long, dry cough before the reply. “Our water source, the nourishing water that gave our land it’s beauty, is gone.”

“Gone? Water can’t just…go!”

“Well, it has. It has gone.”

The Doctor found it rather unnerving talking to a just a voice without seeing the creature behind it. But, judging by the smell, it was probably best that he couldn’t see it. He’d take a disembodied voice over what smelt like a rotting corpse any day. “Well there must be some way to get it back - Tell me what I have to do.”

“What you have to do? Oh, Doctor, there is nothing that you have to do.”

“You may not be forcing me to help you, but it’s still something I have to do.”

“And what if we do not want your help?” More coughing. It was starting to get on his nerves.

“You need my help.”

“Doctor, we have never needed anything from anyone. You may think it your duty to help all who you deem to be in need, but our affairs are our own.”

The Doctor was beginning to get angry. “But without the water source you’ll die. Why let your race die when I can save you?”

“You do not know for sure that you can. You may be able to. But this is the way of things. We believe in playing the game of life with the hand we are given, not playing God and changing the hand. That is what you do, Doctor. You play God and ‘save’ other races, simply because you could not save your own.”

The Doctor hesitated, the creature’s words hitting home. After a moment he asked quietly, “Please, let me help you. Don’t you want to survive?”

“It is not a case of wanting to. It’s a case of whether or not we’re supposed to.”

***

Rose scrambled to her feet, hastily brushing the sand off her jeans as the Doctor appeared at the cave entrance. “So, what’s the plan?”

“There is no plan.” The Doctor carried on walking, looking straight ahead, and Rose ran to catch up with him.

“What do you mean ‘There is no plan’?” she demanded, “You always have a plan! Well, maybe not always, and they aren’t always all that good, and sometimes I think you’re really gonna get me killed, but- but these creatures are gonna die if you don’t do anything.”

“I know.” The Doctor knew his abrupt answers were annoying Rose but he was angry, frustrated, upset even, and he couldn’t quite bottle it up.

“What’s wrong with you Doctor? Don’t you care?”

He stopped abruptly, and Rose bumped into him from behind. "They don't want my help."

"But you could help them anyway. Doctor, I touched it. It was- it was like it was rotting away from the inside. It was…horrible."

He turned to face her.

“Rose, I tried. I asked, I reasoned, I pleaded, I offered any help they were willing to take. But they didn’t want it. People have to want to be saved, or else you won’t be saving them at all.” He hadn’t meant it to come out so forcefully, but he saw Rose flinch back as though stung, and immediately regretted his outburst. Great, this was just the opposite of how he had wanted the ‘outing’ to go.

“Ok,” her reply was quiet as she set off towards the Tardis. The rest of the journey was spent in silence.

***

When they reached the Tardis, the Doctor stopped in front of the door and spoke to Rose without turning to face her. “I’m sorry, Rose. I wanted to take you somewhere wonderful, make you happy again. Instead I show you more people I can’t save.” It hurt him so much to see Rose upset, and to know that he was the cause of it was a hundred times worse.

After a moment he felt Rose’s soft touch on his arm. “Doctor, all I need is you, me and the Tardis,” she patted its blue side, “to make me happy. I don’t need alien planets or great adventures. Just being with you, out in the middle of space and time, where nothing can reach us. That’s all I need. And knowing…knowing that you’re alive…” her voice cracked and she trailed off.

The Doctor turned around slowly then, before she could say anything else, he grabbed Rose in a crushing hug. What she had just said had meant the world to him, and suddenly felt a lot less alone in the universe. He quickly pulled away, familiar grin in place. “Come on then, the Tardis awaits.” He pushed open the door, then held out his hand to Rose which she took, grinning back at him.

He would definitely make the next adventure a success but for now, if she was content just to float about in time and space in the Tardis, then so was he.


End file.
